African American History Essay

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs strongly speaks to its readers by describing the brutalities of slavery and the way slave owners can destroy peaceful lives. After reading and rereading the story have noticed certain things regarding how Jacobs tries to educate her readers and her intended audience which is the women of the North. As if we do not know enough about how terrible slavery is, this story gives detailed examples of the lives of slaves and provokes an incredible amount of emotions. She uses several tactics in her writing to reach her desired audience and does so very well.

In the “Incidents in the life of a slave girl”, Harriet Jacobs’ intent in writing this was to give insight and perspective to her experiences with slavery as an African American. She also narrates her life throughout the obstacles she faces from being a woman in slavery. Which she indicated her purpose by saying,” slavery is terrible for men; but is far more terrible for women.” In her autobiography she displays themes such as racial prejudice, confinement, and psychological abuse.

In the book Incidents in The Life of a Slave Girl, the author, Harriet Jacobs takes us into American history of the nineteenth century of unjust slavery and cruelty, with which individuals of both genders had to struggle with. The story is told through a voice of a young African-American woman, a strong and a devoted mother, a faithful Christian soul, and a slave. Her early struggles to survive, to endure years of psychological abuse from her master, and later escape from bondage to freedom. Through this narrative, the author exemplifies the strongest of wills, the enduring and caring love for her two children, and the perseverance to achieve personal freedom.

In the slave narrative entitled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs also known as Linda Brent, is faced with a number of decisions, brutal hardships, and internal conflicts that she must cope with as an enslaved black woman. She opens the narrative with a preface that states: “READER, be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true. I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery” (Jacobs). The tales and stories of Jacobs are very different than those of free white women during this time period. The preface is in place to prepare these white readers for the unbelievable truth behind being an African American enslaved woman. The differing tales and stories between the two groups extends to those of enslaved black men as well. These three distinctive groups in society experience life in the 1800’s and slavery very differently, and Linda argues that black women had it the worst. “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women” (Jacobs).

Linda Brent shares the recount of her life in slavery in first person. She begins her autobiography with this forward statement, “Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction… I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts.” Brent directly speaks to her readers telling them to “be assured” by doing this she asserts herself as a real and confident narrator. Although Brent is taking control of her readers, she also creates an intimate bond by directly addressing them. By creating a realistic narrator, she lowers the likelihood of the readers to instinctively interpret her story as implausible or debauched. It is well known that the white women of the 1800’s were often very

In her poignant autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs offers the audience to experience slavery through a feminist perspective. Unlike neo-slave narratives, Jacobs uses the pseudonym ‘Linda Brent’ to narrate her first-person account in order to keep her identity clandestine. Located in the Southern part of America, her incidents commence from her sheltered life as a child to her subordination to her mistress upon her mother’s death, and her continuing struggle to live a dignified and virtuous life despite being enslaved. Using an unconventional chronological structure (interrupting the narrative to address social, political, or historical commentary) Jacobs centralizes few arguments such as the economics of slavery, hegemony, pain (physical & emotional) and the quest for freedom. However, she admonishes the reader not to be empathetic for her for “…it is not to awaken sympathy for myself [to which] I am telling you truthfully what I suffered. I do it to kindle a flame of compassion in your hearts for my sisters who are still in bondage” (Jacobs, 28).

Harriet Jacobs, in her book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, narrates the real life and experiences lived by a black girl who born as a slave. In this book, Jacobs shows slavery as something that violates all the rights and principles from the blacks. The way this book is written makes the story more believable. The purpose of Jacobs was to make credible what she has written about the slaves at that time. The author used stories from real slaves and examples so her audiences, white people from the Northern, have knowledge of what black slaves were going

Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is her narrative as a slave who lived in a slave state for twenty-seven years before escaping to live as a free woman in New York (Jacobs preface). Jacobs’ was motivated to write her story by a deep desire to share her experience in an effort to bring to light what slavery really was, a “deep, and dark, and foul experience that is an abomination” (preface). Like other slave narratives, Jacobs’ work gives a first person account of what it was like to be a slave during this period of American history. Her narrative also details what has otherwise been an untouched part

To be a slave in the New World, or U.S.A would’ve been an extraordinarily painful existence, riddled with diseases, abuse and long working hours with bare minimum quality of life. Slaves of this time were according to Lou Smith, former slave, “were treated like dogs,” seen as a tool and an object used at the hands of slave owners. The process of capture, transport and slave life were all terrible, and induced much suffering.

Many times in life, a person looks at the world and sees the world as a distorted clown mirror with all of its lies and twists. Through the reading of the document, The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs from 1861, the reader is allowed to get a small glimpse into the culture inside the United States of America from the perspective of a female African American. Some of these insights are on a simple more factual level, while others tend to seem that way, yet they have much deeper meanings. Some key thoughts that stick out to the reader are the racial shame, various practices by slaveholders, and the corruption of the society.

  Though considerable effort has been made to classify Harriet Ann Jacobs'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself as another example of the typical slave narrative, these efforts have in large part failed. Narrow adherence to this belief limits real appreciation of the text's depth and enables only partial understanding of the author herself Jacobs's story is her own, political yes, but personal as well. Although she does draw from the genre of her people, the slave narrative, to give life and limb to her appeal for the eradication of slavery in America, she simultaneously threads a captivity narrative, a romance, and a seduction novel through

What this account reveals about slavery is that humans were treated horribly in the south, thought of as nothing more than property with less respect and dignity than that of an animal. Where they would welcome the jail rather than the hell of slavery, where nothing was certain and that their families could be taken from them at a moments notice to please the master and to help make them more obedient. It also seems that sick and twisted men used these slaves for their own pleasure hiding behind the pretence of being a good master. Even though you were not suppose to kill a slave except in self-defense this did not stop a master from doing so, only in this account the girl as lucky she lived in a town that was not to big as so no one would

So many things are over looked or not spoken of when you are treated as probity and owned by a master. Its people like Harriet Jacobs that comes forward and tell us all the gruesome details of her first hands experience. In “Incidents in the life of a slave girl”, Harriet Jacobs tells a very intriguing story as Linda Brent who is the protagonist, about her struggle being born into a slave family not just as a slave but also as a women. This autobiography is a very excellent representation of all the obstacles African Americans during that time had to overcome. Even though this book had some flaws like any other book. It was more of a success in my eyes.

This uncompromising narrative documents the horrors faced by female slaves, particularly sexual abuse and the heartache felt by slave mothers whose children were taken from them. Often slave narratives were deemed fictional by the white American public. These autobiographies were constantly under scrutiny for their veracity, even though many narratives were published with endorsements from famous abolitionists confirming the story’s authenticity. Some slave narratives were penned by authors referring to themselves as “Himself” or “Herself.” Jacobs was forced to write under the pseudonym Linda Brent to publish her own narrative. Jacob’s autobiography showed how female slaves struggled with sexual harassment and their efforts to protect their identities as women and mothers. With a mounting national debate over slavery, these ever growing narratives provided a unique manuscript documenting glimpses into the inner thoughts of slaves.

The writing shows that Harriet Jacobs is effective in providing evidence to “arouse the women of the North”. In Harriet Jacobs story, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” we learn that she goes through things sexually and physically, that she doesn’t want any woman to go through like she did. The female gender was abused so much during this time and her message in the story was very clear about the actions of men. The Southern law stated that, “the children followed the situation of the mother, very important so as to ensnare a slave woman's children if she ever had any even if her lover was free.” All of the trials that she faces in slavery challenge her moral principles and are meant to arouse the women of the North. Harriet presented